title: A method to quantify infectious airborne pathogens at concentrations below the threshold of quantification by culture.
abstract: In aerobiology, dose-response studies are used to estimate the risk of infection to a susceptible host presented by exposure to a specific dose of an airborne pathogen. In the research setting, host- and pathogen-specific factors that affect the dose-response continuum can be accounted for by experimental design, but the requirement to precisely determine the dose of infectious pathogen to which the host was exposed is often challenging. By definition, quantification of viable airborne pathogens is based on the culture of micro-organisms, but some airborne pathogens are transmissible at concentrations below the threshold of quantification by culture. In this paper we present an approach to the calculation of exposure dose at microbiologically unquantifiable levels using an application of the "continuous-stirred tank reactor (CSTR) model" and the validation of this approach using rhodamine B dye as a surrogate for aerosolized microbial pathogens in a dynamic aerosol toroid (DAT).
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University 50011-1250, USA (Cutler, Wang, Zimmerman); Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-1250, USA (Hoff); Department of Statistics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-1210, USA (Wang).
authors.forename: Timothy D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Cutler
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hoff
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000032:analysis; D000391:Air Microbiology; D000818:Animals; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000662:veterinary*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D019570:Inhalation Exposure; D008954:Models, Biological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012235:Rhodamines / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D012235:Rhodamines; C029773:rhodamine B